Thats Ok. The mention of fire made me mad and now I need to vent. Last night on my local news they ran a story about the local air pollution control district nazis planning to increase the number of no-burn days from the current 18 to 47. So basically all winter would be no burn days. WTF is this world coming to when a person cant even have a fire in a FIREPLACE in their own damn home? What the heck do these morons think a fireplace is for? A fireplace is a place to have a farking fire!!!!! There should not be even 1 "no burn" day, much less 47 of them. I suppose I should not get so worked up since it really doesnt mean a damn thing. Since they only enforce these sorts of things if someone complains and since none of my neighbors are pussy, whiner nazis I will go right on having fires whenever I feel like it. That said, it is utterly insane how invasive and socialist our government is becoming.

Thats Ok. The mention of fire made me mad and now I need to vent. Last night on my local news they ran a story about the local air pollution control district nazis planning to increase the number of no-burn days from the current 18 to 47. So basically all winter would be no burn days. WTF is this world coming to when a person cant even have a fire in a FIREPLACE in their own damn home? What the heck do these morons think a fireplace is for? A fireplace is a place to have a farking fire!!!!! There should not be even 1 "no burn" day, much less 47 of them. I suppose I should not get so worked up since it really doesnt mean a damn thing. Since they only enforce these sorts of things if someone complains and since none of my neighbors are pussy, whiner nazis I will go right on having fires whenever I feel like it. That said, it is utterly insane how invasive and socialist our government is becoming.

That is ridiculous. What are they trying to accomplish? If it is a pollution issue why don't they implement no drive days?

While it's legal to burn a U. S. flag, it is not legal to steal someone else's flag and burn it. That's called theft. Buying your own flag and setting it ablaze is perfectly fine, if that's what you want to do.

Thats Ok. The mention of fire made me mad and now I need to vent. Last night on my local news they ran a story about the local air pollution control district nazis planning to increase the number of no-burn days from the current 18 to 47. So basically all winter would be no burn days. WTF is this world coming to when a person cant even have a fire in a FIREPLACE in their own damn home? What the heck do these morons think a fireplace is for? A fireplace is a place to have a farking fire!!!!! There should not be even 1 "no burn" day, much less 47 of them. I suppose I should not get so worked up since it really doesnt mean a damn thing. Since they only enforce these sorts of things if someone complains and since none of my neighbors are pussy, whiner nazis I will go right on having fires whenever I feel like it. That said, it is utterly insane how invasive and socialist our government is becoming.

Thats Ok. The mention of fire made me mad and now I need to vent. Last night on my local news they ran a story about the local air pollution control district nazis planning to increase the number of no-burn days from the current 18 to 47. So basically all winter would be no burn days. WTF is this world coming to when a person cant even have a fire in a FIREPLACE in their own damn home? What the heck do these morons think a fireplace is for? A fireplace is a place to have a farking fire!!!!! There should not be even 1 "no burn" day, much less 47 of them. I suppose I should not get so worked up since it really doesnt mean a damn thing. Since they only enforce these sorts of things if someone complains and since none of my neighbors are pussy, whiner nazis I will go right on having fires whenever I feel like it. That said, it is utterly insane how invasive and socialist our government is becoming.

When some dumbass farmer turns a garbage fire into a forest fire during a drought and your house burns down, I won't be feeling sorry for you.

titwrench:That is ridiculous. What are they trying to accomplish? If it is a pollution issue why don't they implement no drive days?

Probably because driving a car produces nothing near the amount of pollution as a wood burning fireplace or stove (assuming these as they are usually the target of burn bans). This does not include pellet stoves or other wood burning appliances that have methods to curb emissions.

I was also wondering about the felony charge. Qualified immunity doesn't apply when the Supreme Court has decided the issue. (If the flag burning protest case doesn't apply, the cross burning case does.) I decided it doesn't matter. There was legitimate cause to arrest and the guy probably suffered no additional harm from the felony charge. To the extent the charges were added by the prosecutor rather than police, absolute immunity applies.

But if cops arrested him for straight up flag desecration with no aggravating circumstances, they could be in trouble.

Coco LaFemme:While it's legal to burn a U. S. flag, it is not legal to steal someone else's flag and burn it. That's called theft. Buying your own flag and setting it ablaze is perfectly fine, if that's what you want to do.

It's not legal to burn a US flag in Montana: FTA: "Lowry was originally charged with a felony charge of desecrating the flag and misdemeanor counts of negligent arson and criminal mischief."

45-8-215. Desecration of flags. (1) In this section, the term "flag" means anything that is or purports to be the official flag of the United States, the United States shield, the United States coat of arms, the Montana state flag, or a copy, picture, or representation of any of the described articles. [emphasis mine] (2) A person commits the offense of desecration of flags if the person purposely or knowingly: (a) publicly mutilates, defiles, or casts contempt upon the flag; (b) places on or attaches to the flag any work, mark, design, or advertisement not properly a part of the flag or exposes to public view a flag so altered; (c) manufactures or exposes to public view an article of merchandise or a wrapper or receptacle for merchandise upon which the flag is depicted; or (d) uses the flag for commercial advertising purposes. (3) A person convicted of the offense of desecration of flags shall be imprisoned in the state prison for any term not to exceed 10 years or be fined an amount not to exceed $50,000, or both. (4) This section does not apply to flags depicted on written or printed documents or periodicals or on stationery, ornaments, pictures, or jewelry if there are not unauthorized words or designs on the flags and if the flag is not connected with any advertisement.

So according to this law the flag is a religious object and the proper salute is to get on all fours and rub our faces into the dirt like the Muslims do to their deity. And as Abrahamic theology holds that God is right because he's bigger than you (cf. Job 38), so does this version of American patriotism hold that Might Makes Right -- that when you're told to shiat your only right is to squat and strain.

Thus our Republic is in more danger from the right than from the left or foreign enemies. Assuming, that is, that our Republic is not based upon brute force without any rationale or principles involved. If the majority agrees, contrary to what i was taught in school, that our Constitution is really a meaningless smokescreen then we're in great shape, and the only reason any given President doesn't bother to officially declare himself above the law is that the president in the USA is actually far less important to US power structure than his counterpart in Egypt to its. We have a dictatorship without a single dictator: this is our "Democracy!"

And sadly a large part of the responsibility for our current state of affairs rests with the majority of our citizens, who would rather be told what to do than participate as equals, and who get up on their hind legs only to demand they be bossed around by their Authority Figures.